Next weekend the Virginia Flaggers will unveil their Confederate battle flag somewhere along I-95 in Chesterfield County, near Richmond. This week they unveiled their new flag on the steps of the Virginia capital. It appears they went with something that resembles the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. I say resembles because if you look closely something is very, very wrong.

If you look closely you will notice that the stars are not spaced properly. Rather than protesting the Museum of the Confederacy for not flying a Confederate flag in front of their new location in Appomattox the Flaggers would have done well to take a look inside at some real flags…you know…the ones the soldiers actually carried into battle.

Remember, according to Susan Hathaway this project is about honoring the men in the ranks. You could say the spacing of the stars is a minor issue, but it seems to me that the details matter given the rhetoric of honor that the Flaggers have employed and the fact that this group began over the issue of the Confederate flag.

It is entirely fitting that this particular flag will fly along I-95 and we can only hope that the Flaggers will place a nice big marker at its base indicating who is responsible for it.

Yes there were a number of different battle flags utilized throughout the war, but the Flaggers have apparently based theirs on the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, which makes sense given where the flag is to be located. Even the flag that Andy displayed on his blog shows that the stars are spaced evenly.

What the “Floggers” are missing is the generous spirit of compromise on the part of the “Flaggers.” Most people objected to them flying the Confederate Battle Flag and they will not be flying the Confederate Battle Flag.

I for one applaud and approve this choice of flag for many reasons. As for Kevin’s quibbling about the historical accuracy of the banner, all I can say is … it’s heritage, not history. So this banner is a suitable symbol for the Flaggers. I just hope they maintain the spacing when they have to replace it after the original ages and suffers weather damage. Not to do so would represent taking another damnYankee blogger’s advice (oh, that’s right … if they maintain the spacing they’re taking my advice … what a dilemma!).

I have to agree that it has come down to a “splitting of hairs,” and it’s of little consequence in the end. I am more concerned with the sentiment behind the placing of the flag rather than worrying about the size, etc. of the stars. There is one thing this California girl has learned since marrying a Southerner, and that is this, the Civil War is still being fought to some extent, isn’t it?

I thought the flag looked wrong as well but I think part of it is the size of the flag and the angle its photographed at. There are numerous examples of the stars in that pattern… At least they got the shape right…not another Naval Jack flying around. However I bet that won’t last past the first time they have to replace this custom made flag.

There’s something lame about the Flaggers’ new flag that I can’t explain; it needs an expert on visual language to elucidate. Would it be too fanciful to say that those little stars clustering in towards the centre look as tho’ they’re afraid of something?

I don’t think it’s splitting hairs at all. I am a proud member of the UDC and if we used a flag like that at one of our events, you can bet that the ‘flaggers’ would crucify us for it – calling us PC stooges and selling out our heritage. I’m sure they wouldn’t let the MOC in Appomattox get away with a flag like this, either. So I think you’re right on the mark with this one.

For the Civil War buffs among us, it’s really worth spending some time over at Kevin Levin’s blog, Civil War Memory. I can’t act like I discovered the place–some readers brought it to my attention. But it’s a great blog dealing in exactly what its title claims.